Peterhead boss Jim McInally spent over two hours at Hampden appealing against the four-game ban he was issued with after a row with referee John McKendrick over the dinner the Balmoor club had supplied him with.
Former Dundee United, Raith and Dundee star McInally, however, headed home without a decision being made by the SFA panel, with a result expected on Wednesday.
The former Scotland international was hit with the suspension last month after McKendrick reported him for asking the whistler and his assistants to move from a dining area at Peterhead’s Balmoor ground after a game with East Stirling on November 16.
The Blue Toon boss feared that, as his side had lost a late goal in their 1-1 draw with the Shire, his players could have made comments that would have been heard and reported by McKendrick as they were sitting close by.
McInally made his request before the match officials went to be fed and he reiterated it when he saw them sitting beside his playing pool. McKendrick believed, however, that McInally had been joking when he made the initial request.
A disciplinary panel was held the day after the Scottish Senior Football Referees Association slammed the governing body for leniency in a case involving Dundee United striker Nadir Ciftci.
The Tannadice striker received a two-match ban, with one game suspended, for “placing an open hand into the lower area of the assistant referee’s throat” in a Scottish League Cup tie against Inverness Caledonian Thistle.
McInally opted not to attend and be represented by a club official.
However, Peterhead were angered by both the ban and the severity of it and backed McInally in his appeal.
The Balmoor boss said: “The appeal hearing was very detailed and lasted for more than two hours before it was adjourned with no decision being made. I was not at the initial hearing when the ban was imposed but I am glad that I attended the appeal.”
“I believe that I was listened to and I will leave things at that. I will get a decision against my appeal as soon as possible and hopefully on Wednesday morning.”
McInally has been in trouble with the SFA before receiving a 12-game ban in 2008 for an incident when he was in charge of East Stirling, which was extended to 16 when he appealed.
* SFA compliance officer Vincent Lunny has been weighing up whether to issue a disciplinary charge against John Gemmell following the Stenhousemuir striker’s allegedly abusive tweet aimed at Rangers boss Ally McCoist.
Gemmell hit out on social media following McCoist’s moans that Rangers were being asked to play four games in 11 days, three of them away from home.